Rise of the King
by DinoJake
Summary: After 5 years out of the PPDC, Pentecost invites Raleigh back into the Jaeger Program for a dangerous mission. Is he up to it? And more importantly, can he defeat an even greater threat lurking in the shadows? Maybe, but I doubt he can do it alone...
1. Prologue

**This may come as a surprise to some of you; I actually have interests **_**besides **_**Halo and Mass Effect. I know, right? Weird. One of the big ones is Kaiju, my first true geek love. The thing I've been geeing out about ever since I was just three years old. I could give you the whole story but really, that's what my tumblr account is for. All you need to know right now is that this is a fanfic that has been taking shape in my mind ever since I saw a certain summer blockbuster….**

….

_They say that monsters aren't born. They're created._

_The first Kaiju attack happened in 1954. A giant reptilian monster rose out of the sea and burned the city of Tokyo to the ground. Thousands died during the First Kaiju's rampage. Thousands more died of radiation poisoning not long after. Nobody knew where it came from, but the radiation poisoning revealed that nukes were involved. Some say the beast was born from all the H-bomb tests in the Pacific Ocean that the United States were conducting. Others say it was born from the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki._

_After several failed attempts to take him out the old fashioned way, the Japanese used a new super weapon, dubbed the Oxygen Destroyer by its creator, a chemist named Daisuke Serizawa. It worked. It killed the First Kaiju but killed all marine life in Tokyo Bay with it. The weapon was deployed by Dr. Serizawa himself, but he sacrificed his life in the process. He burned all of his research notes and documents on the weapon beforehand to prevent it from being replicated, believing that his creation was too horrible to ever be used again._

_The people of Japan grieved, rebuilt, and moved on. Dr. Kyohei Yamane, a Japanese paleontologist, publicly warned against further nuclear testing, saying that the First Kaiju won't be the last, that he was just a harbinger of things to come. In retrospect, we should've listened. But we didn't. All throughout the mid to late 20th century the United States, Soviet Union, the British, the French, the Chinese, the Israelites, everyone that could build nukes tested them on remote islands in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. For decades, we didn't see any ill effects._

_Then in 2005, Dr. Yamane's warning finally came true. It happened again. A giant ankylosaur went on a rampage in San Francisco. Over half a year later, a pair of mutant pterodactyls tore Manila apart. A few months after that, a flying lizard attacked Cabo. And then we learned…._

_This was not gonna stop._

_It didn't take long to realize that your run-of-the-mill tanks and fighter jets aren't gonna cut it against monsters like these. So we started making better tanks and better jets, specially outfitted with weaponry specifically designed to fight kaiju._

_But they still couldn't cut it. The most they could do was slow a Kaiju down before they inevitably tore our cities apart and killed thousands. We didn't think things could get much worse._

_Then in 2014, _he _came back._

_The First Kaiju. No one knows for sure how he came back. Some say that it was a different one of the same species. Others say it was the original's son, all grown up and eager to avenge its father. A few have even said it was the original, back from the dead to wreak its horrible vengeance. _

_However he came back, his return made us realize that we needed something else. Something more. Tanks and planes weren't cutting it. The most they could do was slow a Kaiju down before it inevitably leveled a whole city and killed tens of thousands. That's when we realized that in order to fight monsters, we needed to create monsters of our own. We needed a new weapon._

_The Jaeger Program was born._

_The idea was to build huge robots to fight the Kaiju one-on-one. We've seen Kaiju fight each other to the death before, so we knew it was possible to beat them if we could build Kaiju of our own. During the trial phases, we learned that the neural interface to pilot these robots, these Jaegers, was too much for one pilot to handle. So we came up with a new system. Docs call it the PONS System. Most of us just call it the Drift._

_Two pilots instead of one. Our minds and our memories connected. It allowed both pilots to share the neural load and more easily control the Jaeger. The more in sync the pilots are, the more effectively the jaeger fights._

_They worked. Out of everything else we've ever come up with, the Jaeger Program was, and still is, the best way to keep the Kaiju in check. We were finally taking the world back from the Kaiju. We were the masters of our world once again._

_We had forgotten the original lesson taught to us by the First Kaiju. That sometimes, the worst monsters are the ones we create ourselves._

…..

PPDC Anchorage Shatterdome

2020

…..

Raleigh's eyes snapped open at the blaring of alarms. The very next second, he was up and moving. "Come on, come on, wake up." Raleigh said as he beat on his brother Yancy's chest like a bongo drum as he slept in the bottom bunk. Yancy lazily swatted a hand at him, but he was too slow. Raleigh was already at the sink freshening up.

"What time is it?" Yancy groggily asked as he summoned all of his will to crawl out of the bed.

"Four." Raleigh quickly answered.

"In the _morning_?" Yancy demanded.

"Yep." Raleigh replied. He threw a cold wet towel at Yancy's head. "Come on, get it together Yancy. We gotta be in Gipsy in five." Yancy only grumbled in reply before he finally mustered the will to rise out of the bed and follow his younger brother out.

The Becket brothers made their way out of the shatterdome's barracks and towards the fitting room where members of Gipsy Danger's'pit crew' outfitted them with their drivesuits. As the crew helped the Becket brothers into their suits, Tendo Choi's voice came over the intercom. "Morning gentlemen." he greeted.

"Morning, Tendo." Raleigh cheerfully replied. Yancy simply grumbled some more. "What have we got today?"

"Category three kaiju heading straight for Anchorage." Tendo explained. "Sonar buoys have given us a positive ID. It's Ebirah."

"The shrimp?" Yancy asked. "What's he doing this far north?"

"Well, it _is _King Crab season out in the Bering." Raleigh pointed out. "Maybe he's looking to get lucky?" he joked.

"More likely there's something in Anchorage that he's hot for." Tendo replied. "He's really hauling ass."

"How much ass are we talkin'?" Yancy asked as he zipped up his circuitry suit.

"He's moving at roughly 56 knots and is showing little sign of stopping. He's mostly an aquatic Kaiju, so you know the drill." Tendo further explained.

"Drag him on land if possible and beat him senseless while he flops on the deck. Got it." Yancy replied as his spinal clamp snapped on. Raleigh gave Yancy a thumbs up once his was finished. The pit crew then handed them their helmets. The brothers took the helmets and marched out the other door down another hallway, the pit crew close behind.

By the time they put their helmets on, they found themselves in a circular room, Gipsy Danger's conn pod. Raleigh took his spot on the left side of the room, while Yancy took his on the right. Devices locked on to their boots, rooting them in place. The pit crew busied themselves affixing the feedback cradle to the gauntlets and spines of their drive suits, cabling them into the interface drivers that transmitted their nerve impulses into Gipsy Danger herself. Their helmets were then filled with relay gel. It was always an odd sensation, having your face completely covered by liquid yet you had no difficulty breathing. It had taken the brothers a while to get used to it at first, but after four years in the Jaeger Program, it barely even phased them. It drained as quickly as it filled. The feedback cradle in place and the Becket brothers firmly affixed to the motion rig, the pit crew scurried out of the room.

"Engage drop, Mr. Choi." Marshall Pentecost's voice ordered.

"Engaging drop, sir." Tendo replied.

The brothers looked at each other and nodded. "Release for drop." Yancy said. The two of them each hit a button on the conn pod's command console.

It was then that the brothers suddenly felt a massive falling sensation, like they were in an elevator and someone just cut the cord. It suddenly stopped as the Becket brothers could see out the visor-window of Gipsy Danger,the world slowly spinning as their jaeger's head was screwed on, the body and the head of their Mark-III Jaeger once again united.

"We are locked." Yancy reported as they could hear Gipsy Danger's nuclear turbine roar to life.

"Rangers, this is Marshal Stacker Pentecost." the Marshall stated, formal as ever. "Prepare for neural handshake."

"Starting in four….three…..two…..one." Tendo said.

It was then that the two men felt it. The Drift. The memories and emotions of one filled the mind of the other, their minds synchronizing into one consciousness. A balloon popping. Choosing to join the PPDC over going to college. Their mother's death. The memories washed over them like rain. After a few seconds of that, they were back in the present, ready to fight a Kaiju once again. Drifting was easy for them. They were brothers. They grew up together. Many of their memories were already shared.

"Neural handshake strong and holding." Tendo reported.

"Right hemisphere ready." Yancy reported.

"Left hemisphere linked and ready." Raleigh also reported. "Gipsy Danger ready to deploy."

"Gentlemen." Pentecost began. "Ebirah is on a collision course with Anchorage. Your orders are to hold the city's miracle mile, copy?"

"Copy that." Yancy reported. He hesitated upon checking the heads-up display. "Uh, sir? There's still a civilian vessel in the gulf-"

"You will not risk a city of one million people for a boat that holds ten. Am I clear?" Pentecost interrupted.

"Crystal, sir." Yancy said as he turned off the comm. He turned to Raleigh, who was already looking back at his brother.

"You know what I'm thinkin'?" Raleigh asked.

"I'm in your brain." Yancy reminded as he tapped the side of his helmet with his finger. They smiled at each other.

"Let's go fishin'." Raleigh said. The two took their first steps.

…..

A storm was raging outside, churning up the Bering Sea into a snow white froth. The doors of the Anchorage Shatterdome opened and a sliding platform extended over the water, carrying a Jaeger out on a gantry. The gantry unlocked and the metal giant dropped into the water.

Upon standing back upright, Gipsy Dangerslammed a closed fist into an open palm. The palm's fingers then closed around her fist. With that, the Jaeger began to wade through the angry sea, dead set on its quarry.

…..

"Storm just keeps getting worse, Captain!" a deckhand shouted to Captain Lake of the _Saltchuck _over the roar of the storm. "I think it'd be better if we head back to port! Wait it out!"

"You kiddin'?!" the first mate demanded. "We won't even make it past the shallows!"

Captain Lake gritted his teeth as he held on tightly to the helm. He glanced at the radar and saw salvation; a small island. "What about that island?" he said as he pointed to the silhouette on the radar screen. "It's three miles-"

His sentence stopped in its tracks. "….two miles." he suddenly said. "One….."

The three men looked off to the left and saw a fast-moving object just under the water, heading right for them. The captain could make out a pair of red, beady, mammoth-sized eyes. "Kaiju…." he breathed in horror. He grabbed the ship's intercom. "All hands! Brace for-"

*BOOM*

That's when the Jaeger came out of nowhere, knocking the sea monster out of the water with an upper cut. It made a screech like nails scratching on glass before slamming back into the surf.

….

"Whoo!" Raleigh cheered upon completing a successful uppercut, knocking Ebirah right out of the water.

"Okay, now that Ebirah's seeing stars, let's help out our local small businesses." Yancy said. Gipsy Danger then reached down to the boat, gently picked it up in one hand, and placed it off to the side in a position where it can run away from the fight. Once that was done, the Jaeger turned around to face the Kaiju.

Only to find it trying to swim away.

"Oh no you don't!" Raleigh yelped as Gipsy Danger grabbed the gargantuan lobster by its tail. "You're not goin' anywhere!"

Ebirah thrashed in the water, screeching bloody murder, desperate to get away. Raleigh smiled. He loved whenever a Kaiju got scared. There was no doubt that, if Ebirah wore pants, he'd be shitting them right now. Yancy wasn't smiling though, as he noticed something was off. "Hey Raleigh. Both of his front claws are missing." he pointed out.

Raleigh glanced at Yancy, who in turn glanced back. Normally Raleigh would have asked the significance of that, but thanks to the Drift, he didn't really need to. Ebirah hadn't been encountered by a Jaeger in months, and at the end of that last encounter, it still had both its claws. So how did it lose its claws?

"I'll fire up the com and tell Pentacost we got him." Raleigh said.

"He probably already knows." Yancy replied.

"Sure, but he hasn't _heard _us say it." Raleigh countered. "You know how he is about following protocols."

Trusting Yancy to maintain a tight grip on the jumbo shrimp as he continued thrashing like the captured wild animal he was, Raleigh toggled the com back on. Pentecost's voice filled the conn pod. "Gipsy!" he barked. "What the hell is going on?!"

"We have Ebirah, Shatterdome." Raleigh reported in. "Do we bring him in or take him out?"

At that precise moment, Ebirah's desperate struggling finally paid off as it finally slipped free of Gipsy Danger's grasp, slipping back into the ocean. "Shit!" Raleigh cursed.

"Kaiju is getting away. Beginning pursuit." Raleigh reported.

…

"Don't bother, Gipsy Danger_._" Pentecost replied as he stared at the primary monitor back in the LOCCENT. "Ebirah is moving too fast. No way you can catch up to him in the water. He's already several hundred feet south of your position."

"Wait, south?" Yancy asked. "You mean he's turning back?"

"Correct. Heading south by southwest." Pentecost replied as he saw Ebirah's signal heading back out to sea. "Whatever it was that he wanted in Anchorage, it appears our crustaceous friend decided that it wasn't worth fighting a Jaeger over."

"Sooo….crisis averted?" Raleigh asked.

"For the city, yes. But not for you." Pentecost growled. "You disobeyed direct orders, Ranger."

"With all due respect sir, we intercepted a Kaiju, sent him running back home to mama, and saved everyone on that boat _and _in that city." Yancy haughtily remarked. "All before the Kaiju could even _see _the miracle mile."

"Just get back to your posts." Pentecost said.

"Can do." Yancy replied. "Can't wait to crawl back into my nice, cozy bed."

Pentecost continued eyeing Ebirah's signature as it continued on its new course. Something wasn't right. As Marshall of the PPDC, Pentecost knew each and every registered Kaiju, living or dead, like the back of his hand. He knew that Ebirah wasn't usually that timid around Jaegers. Just a few months ago, the lobster gave Diablo Intercepta decent run for her money before it was driven back into the sea. Why was it so desperate to get away this time?

"Sir!" Tendo reported. "Picking up a new Kaiju signature, coming in from the southeast, heading straight for Gipsy Danger's position."

"Hold position, Gipsy Danger." Pentecost ordered. "You're not done just yet." He turned to Tendo. "What category?"

"Analyzing now sir." Tendo replied. "Calculating size in combination with radiation residue and projected energy output….."

Tendo Choi paused as his mouth suddenly began to hang open like a fish gasping on the deck. "What is it?" Pentecost asked.

"….Category five, sir."

The whole room suddenly went silent. Pentecost tried his best to remain stoic. But on the inside, he was horrified. "Is it….?"

"He's moving too fast to know for sure." Tendo replied. "Sonar buoys are going haywire from all the background radiation."

Pentecost grimly nodded. "It's him, alright." he said, barely above a whisper.

"Copy that, Shatterdome?" Yancy asked. "What category?"

"Category five, Gipsy Danger." Pentecost said.

….

Raleigh and Yancy exchanged a look at one another. "That's impossible." Yancy said. "The only category five Kaiju out there is…." Yancy paused as he realized who he was talking about.

"Ebirah wasn't interested in Anchorage, he was just running away." Pentecost said. "Just like you should be. Get out of there. Now."

"Sir, we can take him." Raleigh tried to argue.

"That's bullshit and everyone here knows it." Pentecost said. "You're not taking on you-know-who without backup, and I am sure as hell not going to let him destroy another Jaeger. Get out of there, Rangers. That's an order."

Though Raleigh was hesitant to do so, Yancy convinced him through the Drift that Pentecost was right. Gipsy Danger couldn't take the King of the Monsters one-on-one and expect to win. The Jaeger turned around and started wading back towards the Shatterdome as fast as it could.

"How fast is he comin'?" Yancy asked.

"Too fast." Tendo reported. "Five miles and closing."

Raleigh turned to Yancy. Yancy nodded at Raleigh's thoughts through the Drift. No way they could make it back to the Shatterdome before he catches them. That really only left them with one realistic option.

Gipsy Dange_r _turned around once again, putting up its fists, ready to fight.

"Gipsy Danger_, _what are you doing?" Pentecost demanded.

"Shatterdome is ten miles out, Marshall." Yancy reported. "No way we'd get there before he catches us. And even if we do, we'd be leading him right to you guys."

"So you're going to kill yourselves?" Pentecost demanded.

"Better just us than all of you." Yancy said.

"And who knows? We might get lucky." Raleigh added. "Gipsy Dangermight go down in the history as the Jaeger who finally knocked the king off his throne."

"….Godspeed, gentlemen." Pentecost replied.

With that, Gipsy Danger stood her ground. Raleigh and Yancy held up their fists, ready for the Jaeger Von Jaegers to hit them. Raleigh pulled up the motion-tracker screen. A blip appeared in the direction they were facing. The blip moved closer. "Engaging plasma caster." Yancy reported as he made ready Gipsy Danger's primary long-range weapon, hoping to get a few shots in before the Kaiju hit.

"Three miles and closing." Yancy said. "Two point seven five. Two point five."

"Bastard's moving fast." Raleigh replied.

"He's the First Kaiju, what did you expect?" Yancy asked. "Two miles. One-seven-five. One-five."

"Bullshit." Raleigh hissed as he looked out through Gipsy's visor. "We should have a visual on him by now."

"He must be underwater." Yancy replied. "One mile."

"The water ain't that deep! We should've seen him by now!" Raleigh yelled. He was starting to lose his composure. "What, now you're gonna tell me that he can _fly_?"

"He's here!" Yancy yelled.

"Where?!" Raleigh yelled back.

It was then that a shadow fell in front of Gipsy was all the brothers saw before the Jaeger was suddenly knocked upwards by a great force. It landed in the water, its head beneath the surface. All the Becket brothers could see out the massive visor in front of them was light refracting through the water's surface.

The brothers tried to stand themselves back up, knowing that the last thing you wanted to do in the presence of a Kaiju is lie on your back. Slowly, they were able to get upright again, but the Kaiju was nowhere to be found. "Where is he?" Raleigh demanded.

Alarms blared in the conn pod as reports showed that Gipsy Danger's shoulders were suddenly under extreme strain. The Beckets didn't need to read those reports as they could feel the weight on their own shoulders. Neurally piloting the Jaegers was the best way to control them, as it allowed unparalleled motor control of the robot. It was a double-edged sword however, as the Rangers could _feel _every blow dealt to the Jaeger like it was being dealt to themselves. This drawback revealed itself in the worst way as the weight on the Becket Brothers' shoulders was so strong that the Jaeger collapsed to its hands and knees. Alarms blared, alerting that the arms and legs were still under too much strain from the huge weight on their back.

The weight on Gipsy Danger's back suddenly disappeared, ending the strain reports. The Jaeger lifted its upper body up, but not by its own volition. Like something had grabbed the Jaeger by both arms or its torso and forced it up. The Beckets looked on in horror as a shadow completely enveloped the Jaeger's visor window, as though the Kaiju wrapped one of its limbs around the head of the Jaeger, which it most likely did. They tried to move the Jaeger's arms, but found that they couldn't. Something was keeping them bound.

It was then that Raleigh felt an odd pressure on his left arm, near where the arm met the shoulder. It felt like a python had wrapped around that area and began to squeeze. Hard. Raleigh gritted his teeth as the pressure turned into pain, his vision going fuzzy as warning sirens blared in the conn pod reporting an unusual squeezing pressure on Gipsy Danger's left arm. Raleigh suddenly screamed as he gripped his left arm as the pain exploded into a sudden white coldness.

Reports showed that the Jaeger's left arm had been torn off.

Yancy felt the same pain too through the Drift, grabbing his own left arm. "Arm's gone cold." he said through gritted teeth.

"My arm, not yours." Raleigh panted. "Fire."

Yancy's arm still in plasma-caster mode, Yancy warmed it up to fire a few volleys. However, Yancy shouted in pain as his right arm was forcibly jerked upwards just as the plasma gun fired. The plasma bolts wound up hitting nothing but sky.

Maybe it was delirium from the stress of losing his arm - Gipsy Danger's arm Raleigh corrected himself - but Raleigh could've sworn he heard giggling outside the conn pod.

It was then that the brothers suddenly heard the creaking of metal. A crack appeared on the visor. Now the Kaiju was putting the squeeze on the head. Yancy tried to move the Jaeger's right arm but it was no use. The Kaiju had a grip like a bear trap.

Mysteriously, the shadow obscuring the visor vanished. The metal stopped creaking, the glass stopped cracking. Out the window, the Rangers saw nothing but ocean. They now knew that the Kaiju was doing all this from behind the Jaeger, so there's that. It was probably holding them in a full nelson.

It was then that huge teeth suddenly pierced the roof of the conn pod, right above Yancy. The metal creaked again as the beast growled in an attempt to bite down. Sparks of static electricity danced around the teeth, warping the air around them. A high-pitched screech of a roar could be heard outside.

Yancy and Raleigh turned to each other. "No." Raleigh quietly said.

"Raleigh, listen to me-" The rest of Yancy's sentence was forever lost. The monster's bite won against the Jaeger's armor as it bit down, a huge mouth clamping down on Yancy and pulling away just as swiftly, exposing the conn pod to the storm outside.

Raleigh felt it all through the Drift. Yancy's dread as he knew he was about to die. The fleeting half-second of terror mixed with despair, followed by a couple seconds of blinding pain. Then, silence. All that was left on that side of the conn pod were sparking electronics now.

Raleigh could hear it more clearly now. The giggling.

It wasn't him. It wasn't the King of the Monsters. It was something worse.

And it was _laughing _at him.

Raleigh worked fast. He hammered at a bank of manual switches, trying to engage the crisis command matrix. With the CCM online, he gave it its first command; reverse headbutt.

Gipsy Danger thrust its head backward, trying to throw the Kaiju off. Raleigh heard and felt the Jaeger's head colliding with the Kaiju's earning a squeal of pain. He felt the kaiju's grip on Gipsy's remaining arm loosen. He then put every ounce of strength he still had into twisting the Jaeger's body clockwise, knocking the Kaiju's head yet again as he did so, this time with Gipsy's remaining hand balled into a fist.

Raleigh gave the CCM one last command; Plasma Cannon Overload. Now free of the Kaiju's grip, he aimed the plasma cannon at the shadow in front of him. He still couldn't get a really good look at the Kaiju, even as it was standing in front of him, because of the storm. It was massive, half again as tall as Gipsy Danger.

The monster roared at him.

Raleigh roared back as he fired.

…..

Bruce grimaced as he held on to his coat, hugging himself tightly in the blizzard. There should be a law against this. He should be inside, watching Avengers 3 with a cup of hot cocoa in his lap. But no, Grampa all but insisted on continuing the hunt in spite of the weather. He looked at his grandfather as he continued waving his metal detector across the snow-encrusted sand of what would be a beach during the summer. When Bruce agreed to help his Grampa on a treasure hunt, this isn't what he had in mind.

He sighed, watching his breath rise into the air as a puff of smoke. What he wouldn't give to just turn back and go home right now. Or at least have something happen. Something that was cool enough to justify being out here.

It was then he heard a kind of huge splash, like a whale just breached. He turned towards the ocean. Another big splash, followed by another louder one. It wasn't a whale. If it was, it wouldn't sound like it was getting closer. Bruce's eyes widened as he saw the silhouette appear through the haze of the blizzard.

A Jaeger! A real live Jaeger! Never in his wildest dreams did Bruce think he would get this close to a Jaeger in person! "Grampa! Look!" he yelled. But the old man was too intent on his metal detector. His headphones didn't help. Bruce then ran up to his grandfather and tugged on his sleeve. That did a better job of getting his attention. Bruce then pointed to the approaching Jaeger. Grampa looked stunned as the massive robot approached.

Bruce immediately recognized the Jaeger as none other than Alaska's own Gipsy Danger. He owned three Gipsy Danger trading cards, so he knew it when he saw it. But it was missing its left arm, its head looked funny, and it was practically covered in scratches and holes. When it was close enough to the beach, it collapsed onto its remaining hand and knees. It then fell on its left side, shaking the ground as it crashed, almost making Bruce and his Grandfather lose balance.

The two of them rushed over to the Jaeger as someone climbed out of the head. It was Ranger Raleigh Becket. Bruce didn't have _his _card yet. He was still in his white drivesuit and was looking around, like he was lost. "You okay?" Grampa asked him. But Raleigh looked too confused to answer. That's when Bruce noticed blood running down Raleigh's face. Grampa turned to Bruce. "Go get help!" he ordered.

Bruce nodded and ran back to the house at the far end of the frozen beach.

…..

One Month Later….

….

Raleigh Becket was extremely shook up during the debriefing. Shrinks said losing Yancy, in the middle of a Drift no less, had given Raleigh a bad case of post-traumatic stress disorder and recommended that he take a few weeks off at least. Just as well. Marshal Pentecost was planning on grounding him for insubordination anyway. That was what he would cite as the official reason for his temporary dismissal, at any rate. He reasoned it looked better on a profile than 'psych leave,' which was unofficially code for 'he's crazy.'

Only Raleigh had no interest in coming back at all. He quit the PPDC just a few days after the psych eval. Refused survival benefits, as well as the requests for a brain scan requested by the drift technicians to determine how he was able to fight off a category five literally all by himself.

As for the category five, one thing Raleigh kept insisting is that it _wasn't _the First Kaiju. Pentecost didn't really believe him at first. If it wasn't the First Kaiju, then who else could it possibly be? But sure enough, the retrieval of Gipsy Danger's black box confirmed Becket's testimony. The roar he heard on the black box recording wasn't even close to matching the First Kaiju's roar. In fact, it didn't match any roar in the PPDC's Kaiju database. It was an entirely new Kaiju, never before encountered.

Even worse, it was still out there. Though Raleigh fought valiantly, he couldn't kill the category five. He only drove it off. Last sonar scan showed it moving south before they lost track of it. The PPDC knew next to nothing about this Kaiju, except that it was very large and very powerful. Many thought that there was something in Anchorage that it wanted, but Pentecost had his own theories. When that monster appeared, it wasn't heading for Anchorage. It was heading for Gipsy Danger. When it retreated, it went back out to sea. It had no interest in the city, only the Jaeger defending it.

Whatever this creature was, it's possible that it specifically targets Jaegers. It was just a theory. Less than a theory, actually. More like a hypothesis. Either way, it still put a chill through the Marshall's bones. The next wave of Jaegers would need to be the most powerful yet if they were to stand a chance against this new threat. There was just one problem.

"What do you mean there won't be any Mark VI's next year?" Marshall Pentecost demanded. He stood in the Anchorage LOCCENT, staring down a wall full of computer monitors, on each one a member of the Subcommittee on Kaiju Defense and Security.

"Well Marshall Pentecost, there's really no easy way to say this, so I'll just go ahead and put it out there." said the American representative. "Jaegers are expensive, and we just don't have the money to build any new ones anymore. Hell, the last Jaeger we built cost one hundred billion dollars _alone_."

"Yes, and Striker Eureka was worth every penny." the Marshall argued. "She's the fastest moving Jaeger we got. She's the reason both Rodans are dead, a pair of Kaiju that have been on the wanted list for a long time mind you, and their hatchling is now secure on Monster Island."

"And that is by no means the PPDC's only victory." the Japanese representative said. "Baragon, Varan, King Caesar and several others have all been successfully captured and detained on Monster Island. Dozens more Kaiju have been killed outright. All in all, the Jaeger Program is a rousing success."

"So why are you denying my request for Mark VI Jaegers?" Pentecost went on.

"Because they are not needed." the Russian representative huffed. "Many Kaiju are either dead or locked up on Monster Island. Kaiju Attacks have finally started to decrease in frequency. We finally have some breathing room."

Pentecost took a second to stamp out his utter disbelief at the phrase 'not needed.' "With all due respect, need I remind you that just a few weeks ago an unknown cat-five tore Gipsy Danger apart? And that it's _still _out there?"

"A regrettable event." the American replied. "None regret it more than I do. The Becket Brothers were All-American heroes that made my country proud. But they knew the risks when they signed up. As for the cat-five, we have full confidence in the PPDC's ability to hunt it down and bring it to justice."

"How am I supposed to do that without any new Jaegers?" Pentecost asked.

"With the Jaegers you have, of course." the Canadian representative said. "Worldwide, there are over thirty Jaegers total. That should be more than enough to dispatch this new threat along with any other Kaiju that's still out there. In addition, while we are denying your request for new Jaegers, we will gladly fulfill your request for continued maintenance funding. Essentially, you already have everything you need to reign in however many Kaiju are still roaming free."

"What about Monster Island?" Pentecost further questioned. "There's no such thing as an inescapable prison, and that goes double when Kaiju are involved. Mark my words, that island's defenses are going to crack one day."

"Admiral Gyozen has assured us that Monster Island's security systems are air-tight." the Japanese representative stated. "And even in the unlikely event of an escape, he has a full strike group of Jaegers stationed near Monster Island at all times to intercept the escapee."

"We know you disagree with the Admiral's methods of keeping Monster Island's Kaiju in line." the Japanese representative added. "But as distasteful as those methods may be, they have been effective. On record, only one Kaiju has ever so much as attempted an escape."

Pentecost said nothing on that subject. He didn't really need to. His opinion on Noritaka Gyozen was already well-documented. Instead, he went on with the topic at hand. "We are at war, ladies and gentlemen." Pentecost told them. "And when you're at war, you don't cut funding to your army just because it looks like you're winning."

"With all due respect Marshall, you give the Kaiju far too much credit." the British representative at last spoke up. "We have not, nor have we ever truly been, at 'war' with the Kaiju. And as difficult as this may be for you to hear, your Rangers are not soldiers. They are merely exterminators who were called in to address a pest control problem. The vermin are receding, so it looks like the exterminators' job is nearly done."

"Nearly, but not completely." Pentecost countered. "A single pair of rats is all it takes to bring back the pest problem with a vengeance."

"Except Kaiju have only been able to reproduce in extremely rare cases, so that actually makes a very poor analogy." the American said.

"There's still one _very _important point I feel I must make." Pentecost said. He marched up a few steps closer to the screen. "_The First Kaiju _is still out there."

The representatives were silent for a moment. Pentecost thought he saw the Japanese rep in particular lose a little color. "Look. The point is that you already have thirty plus Jaegers in total. You _really _don't need any more. You say we still have Kaiju problems? Work with what you've got to deal with them. This meeting is over." the American said. With that, all the monitors winked off.

Pentecost took a breath. He reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out a pill box. He pulled out a pale yellow tablet and swallowed it. After putting the pill box back into his coat pocket, he turned to Tendo Choi and Hercules Hansen, who had been watching the meeting from out of the subcommittee's line of sight, as they often did. It was against the rules to let them listen in on his meetings, but they were part of his inner circle. He knew they were at their best when they were kept in the loop.

"Suits and ties and flashy smiles." Herc said with a shake of his head. "That's all they are. They don't know a thing about war."

"Well, so much for the next wave of Jaegers." Tendo said with a sigh. "Now what?"

"…I suppose we'll just have to make do with what we have." Pentecost replied. His mind was reeling. For the first time since the Jaeger Program was born, requests for new Jaegers had been denied. Had the world truly gone so complacent? He may have plenty of Jaegers now, but how long would that last? No Jaeger can fight forever. It was only a matter of time until gaps started appearing in the PPDC's lines, and without fresh new Jaegers to fill those gaps, the line may eventually collapse. There are still a lot of Kaiju out there, including the mysterious cat-five who murdered Gipsy Danger in cold blood. That's not even mentioning the First Kaiju. There was still so much left to be done.

Pentecost decided that he'd better get to work.

…

**Happy Halloween to all! And what better way for me to celebrate it than with the premiere of an all-new monster-centric fanfic from the literary genius that is myself? Stay tuned for ANOTHER update to this fanfic later tonight.**

**Oh what? It's Halloween, and this is a fanfic about monsters. You'd think I'd be content posting just ONE chapter?**


	2. Welcome to G-Force

**First of all, apologies if this one came a little late, but I spent much of the day helping family get the house ready for trick-or-treaters which didn't leave much time for proofreading.**

**Second, this fanfic's continuity. Taking a page from most of the Shinsei films, this fanfic will only acknowledge the original 1954 film as 100% canon. The rest is more or less made up. Not to say this fanfic will ignore the rest of the franchise altogether. Oh no. As you're about to read, there will be PLENTY of references to various other films in the franchise. Think of it as something like a continuity reboot; it cherry-picks ideas from several films and even some comics, but is essentially a different continuity. Expect plenty of what you love about the Godzilla series and the Pacific Rim film, but there will no shortage and twists and turns along the way.**

**Now, without further ado, Chapter 2!**

…..

5 years later...

….

Raleigh grabbed the coffee from the truck's cup holder, finishing it off. He then threw the cup on the floor in front of the passenger's seat, where all manner of used cups, old napkins and other assorted trash could be found. The former Ranger made a note to clean it out at the next stop.

Speaking of which, a sign he just passed told him that the drop-off point was twenty-five miles down the highway. Good. He hadn't taken his morning constitution yet, but he'll be feeling the urge to do it soon now that he's finished his coffee. He looked around. The frozen highway was empty, as it often was at this time of morning. The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon, illuminating the silhouette of Anchorage's skyline far in the distance. Raleigh flipped on the radio for the only part of the news he payed any real attention to.

"And now it's time for the Kaiju Report." the voice announced. "Barugaron was heading for Sydney last weekend, and would have made landfall if Striker Eureka had not intercepted the vampiric Kaiju and killed it after a long and hard battle in Sydney harbor. Shortly after the battle, we were able to get a few brief words from Striker Eureka's father-son team Hercules and Chuck Hansen."

"Sergeant Hansen!" came a female reporter's voice. "If it weren't for Striker Eureka, Barugaron would've surely destroyed much of Sydney. Couple that with the recent loss of Vulcan Specter, effectively making you and your son the last Australian Rangers, do you think the Jaeger Program should be renewed for more Jaegers?"

"We stopped the Kaiju, yeah?" Hercules asked.

"Yes but-"

"Then I have no further comment."

"I do." popped in a different, younger voice. "We bagged our tenth kill today. Kind of a record."

"What do you think, Ranger Hansen? Should the Jaeger Program have its funding restored in response to recent casualties, or do you think the reduced frequency of Kaiju attacks over the years justifies steadily defunding the Jaeger Program as the Age of Monsters draws to a close?"

"Listen Sweetheart." Chuck began with a cocky sort of tone. "There's always gonna be some monster lurking on an island somewhere. If the UN were smart, they'd keep us on standby. I mean, what else are they gonna do? Build a bigass wall?" he then chuckled at his own joke.

"Chuck Hansen may be referring to the briefly-considered UN plan to build a wall around the Pacific Ocean, where most Kaiju attacks originate, thus giving another layer of protection to cities on the coast of the Pacific." the original newscaster's voice explained. "However, the plan was quickly discarded due to several flying and burrowing Kaiju who are still at large."

"In other Kaiju-related news, a Black Moth terrorist was apprehended at Seattle International Airport yesterday. According to FBI officials, Grigori Varennikov is a high-ranking member of the logistics branch of the insidious Kaiju Cult's terrorist network. He was caught trying to smuggle a large shipment of weapons past customs, including AK-47's and even RPG's. Upon arrest, he launched into the following tirade."

"We have raped the earth for too long!" a voice with a thick Russian accent began to rant. "The time will soon come for us to pay the price for our arrogance, and it will be the God of Vengeance who will collect on that price! No one shall be spared his divine judgement!"

"Varennikov was a wanted international arms dealer prior to joining the Order of the Black Moth. Children of Mothra Priestess Kaitlin McCormick declined to comment, only repeating that the Children of Mothra do not condone-"

Raleigh switched off the radio, having heard all he needed to hear.

….

Raleigh arrived at the warehouse on the city limits of Anchorage to deliver his cargo: a shipment of Playstation 6's. After signing all the necessary forms and receiving his paycheck, Raleigh drove his rig down to a diner that was conveniently close by. Owner had the right idea, opening a diner just a half-mile away from a warehouse where truckers made their deliveries.

Raleigh sat at a table and ordered a short stack of flapjacks with some bacon. As he waited at the booth, he thought back to his route. Sony's got at least a couple dozen truckers, Raleigh included, driving up and down the North American coast from Vancouver to Anchorage and back again. Most likely he'll be getting a call from the company telling him to head back to Vancouver.

"This seat taken, Mr. Becket?"

Raleigh paused. That voice sounded a lot like someone he hadn't seen in years. He looked up.

Over the table stood a tall man of African descent with short black hair and a matching mustache. He wore an unassuming wool jacket, no doubt to allow himself to blend in better. After all, if people saw your numerous decorations and officer's uniform, they'd be saluting you everywhere you went. But Raleigh wasn't fooled. He'd know that face anywhere.

"Marshall." Raleigh greeted. "Looking sharp." It had been so long since the last time he saw Marshall Stacker Pentecost. He never thought he'd see him again at all. The incredulousness at seeing him again was part of the reason why 'looking sharp' was the best greeting Raleigh could come up with on the spot.

"It's been a long time." Pentecost replied. "Five years, I think."

"Four years, ten months." Raleigh corrected.

"Feels like longer." Pentecost said.

"No." Raleigh replied. "It's been four years, ten months."

"Here's your order, sir." a pretty young lady with long blonde hair said as he brought Raleigh his order. She turned to Pentecost, surprised by the presence of a man that wasn't there before. "Er, do you want anything sir?" she asked.

"No thanks. I already had breakfast." Pentecost replied. "I'm just catching up with an old friend." the Marshall said as he gestured to Raleigh.

"Alright then." the waitress said before walking away.

"So, you're a trucker now, huh?" Pentecost asked as he took a seat. "Dangerous work. Especially way up in Alaska, what with the icy roads."

"It keeps food in my belly." Raleigh replied.

"That and you still get to pilot a machine." Pentecost pointed out. "PPDC's been doing okay since you left, by the way. We don't really _build _Jaegers anymore though. Damn budget cuts keep it out of our price range. Striker Eureka was the last one we built, and that was way back in nineteen. Bloody politicians want to think they don't need us anymore just because it's been fairly quiet as of late. We're down to nineteen active Jaegers now. It was an even twenty last month, but then Vulcan Specter was confirmed KIA last week.."

"What do you want, Marshall?" Raleigh asked, sick of the small talk.

"Well, to make a long story short, I want you back in the PPDC." the Marshall bluntly replied. "There's a busted up old Jaeger I'm trying to get back online for a special mission I'm planning. A Mark-III. I need a pilot."

Raleigh raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you have me grounded for insubordination?" he asked.

"I did." Pentecost admitted. "But I'm a great believer in second chances, Mr. Becket. Aren't you?"

Raleigh sighed. "I'm guessing I wasn't your first choice."

"You were." Pentecost said. "You fought off a category five Kaiju and then marched a half-destroyed Jaeger back to shore. All on your own. There's something special about you, Mr. Becket. I need special right now.

Raleigh finally shook his head. "I don't need anyone else in my head again." he said. "I'm not a Ranger. Not anymore. Without Yancy, I have no business being one."

The conversation seemed to end there as Raleigh's flapjacks and bacon arrived. He grabbed a piece of bacon and popped it into his mouth. He chewed as he grabbed a butter knife and started spreading the butter over his pancakes. He was doing his best to ignore the Marshal now.

"….We retrieved Vulcan Specter's blackbox." Pentecost said, breaking the silence. Raleigh stopped buttering and swallowed his bacon. The Marshal reached into his coat and pulled out an MP3. He handed it to Raleigh. "I think you might want to give it a listen."

Cautiously, Raleigh took the MP3. He stuck the earbuds into his ears and hit the play button. Nothing unusual at first. A pair of voices with Australian accents commenting on how the Fiji outpost, the one they had been sent to investigate, had been totaled. Then, a crash, alarms blaring, screaming.

Followed by high-pitched screeches and cackles.

The moment he heard the giggling that had haunted his nightmares for half of a decade, Raleigh ripped out the earbuds and threw them on the table. His heart was pounding in his chest like he just ran a mile, and he was panting as well, suddenly more desperate for air. "Sorry you had to hear that again." Pentecost said with a regretful tone. "From what we can tell, Nadazero destroyed Vulcan Specter in much the same way it destroyed Gypsy Danger. Took the Jaeger by surprise, immobilized it, ripped it to shreds before the Jaeger had a chance to react."

"Nadazero?" Raleigh asked as soon as he caught his breath. Three years ago, hearing the Kaiju's roar on recording might have triggered a flashback, but Raleigh was past that phase now. Still, the pain and the loss of Yancy, it suddenly felt fresh again.

"It's what the boys down in K-Science have taken to calling this thing." Pentecost elaborated. "In additions, there's some evidence to suggest that it also killed Echo Saber." He paused. "As well as Coyote Tango."

Raleigh was silent. Echo Saber was a Japanese Mark-IV Jaeger that was destroyed by an unknown Kaiju in 2023. Coyote Tango was destroyed earlier, in '22. He knew that Pentecost had to have taken Coyote's death hard. She was _his _Jaeger. And now she was gone, along with her pilots Gunnar and Vic Tunari, two good Rangers. But Raleigh didn't know that both Gipsy and Coyote, along with two other Jaegers, were all destroyed by the same Kaiju. The PPDC probably kept that particular detail a secret from the general public in order to prevent a panic.

Pentecost went on. "This Kaiju has potentially destroyed four different Jaegers over the last five years. Category Five. Only one other Kaiju in that category, and it can't be him. Fighting style's not the same. The First Kaiju will come at you, break your face, and will damn sure let you know he's coming." he said. "_This_ Kaiju attacks under the cover of darkness, takes the Jaeger by surprise, kills it, then leaves once the job's done. Also Coyote Tango, Echo Saber and Vulcan Specter were all missing an arm when we found them."

"Just like Gypsy Danger." Raleigh said. "….Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because that Kaiju is still out there, along with God only knows what else." Pentecost said. "Like I said before, the politicans want to think that they don't need us anymore just because things have been fairly quiet as of late. But you and I both know that there are still plenty of monsters hiding out there, waiting for us to lower our guard."

"…So assuming I say yes…What kind of mission would I be signing up for?" Raleigh asked.

"One that's unrelated to our mystery monster, I'm afraid." Pentecost confessed. "But make no mistake, we'll be dealing with him soon enough."

"So who's the target?" Raleigh asked.

Pentecost smiled. "The one that always got away. The one we could never beat. The Jaeger von Jaegers. The First Kaiju. The King of the Monsters."

Raleigh chuckled bitterly. "You're putting G-Force back together?" he asked. G-Force was a three-Jaeger strike group that was formed in 2019 with one simple goal: Kill the King of the Monsters. The Jaegers who made up G-Force were Tacit Ronin, Romeo Blue, and Lucky Seven. They took on the King, but they only wound up kneeling before the throne from busted legs, just like everyone else. Thankfully all the Rangers survived, only to become the butt of a thousand jokes all across late-night TV.

Pentecost sighed. "If the politicians are right and the Jaeger Program's days are numbered, then I want to start tying up loose ends. Between Nadazero and the First Kaiju, there are quite a few jobs that still need to be done before we hang up our coats for good. We'll be dealing with the Jaeger von Jaegers first as we actually know where he is now. Night drone fly-bys have confirmed that he's hiding on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific ocean. I can tell you more after you sign up."

"Assuming I sign up." Raleigh pointed out. "What makes you think I'd _want _to sign up?"

"…..Who are you fooling, Mr. Becket?" Pentecost asked in turn. "Is this even a question for you? If so, let me ask it for you; where would you rather be? In an old eighteen-wheeler that smells like cigarettes? Or in a Jaeger?"

Raleigh paused. "….I'll have you know that I don't smoke, so my rig doesn't smell _anything _like cigarettes." he defended.

….

It had been a long flight from Anchorage to Hong Kong, all in a sikorsky helicopter. The whole trip took over ten hours and the chopper had to make three pit-stops in three different countries along the way to refuel. According to his biological clock, Raleigh should be driving down an icy road in the middle of the night right about now. But according to Hong Kong's local clock, it was the middle of the afternoon.

A very rainy afternoon, Raleigh noted as they entered Hong Kong harbor. A thick grey blanket of clouds had settled over the city and began dropping its load for the day. The helicopter approached the helipad outside Hong Kong's Shatterdome and touched down. Pentecost opened the door and led Raleigh out. Raleigh looked around and saw a cargo helicopter next to them with its loading doors opened, deck crew wheeling out wooden crates as a pair of men were arguing with one another. Scientists. Even under the thick black rain coats they were wearing, Raleigh could always pick out the eggheads from everyone else. As well as the Rangers from everyone else. Hell, Raleigh had been with the PPDC for so long that he'd know everyone's occupation within the Shatterdome just from the way they carried themselves.

It was only then that Raleigh realized something. He was home. A PPDC Shatterdome was the only kind of place in the world with which Raleigh was intimately familiar. Despite the four years and ten months he'd spent away from the Pan Pacific Defense Corps, when he planted his feet on the helipad's tarmac, it suddenly and strangely felt as though he never left. Though the loss of his brother deeply affected him at the time, he was now wondering why left in the first place. He should've known that this was the only place he truly belonged.

"Hong Kong." Pentecost said, snapping Raleigh out of his reverie. "The very first Shatterdome, opened on November 30th, 2015." he turned to the Ranger. "Appropriate place to plot a king's downfall, wouldn't you say Mr. Becket?"

Before Raleigh could reply, a young Japanese woman began walking up to the two, holding a large umbrella. She had a young, petite face framed by bangs that were dyed blue at the tips, standing in contrast with the rest of her black hair. She bowed to Marshal Pentecost and extended her umbrella to cover him as well as herself. "Raleigh Becket, Mako Mori." Pentecost introduced. "She's one of our brightest. Has been for years now. She's in charge of the Mark-III restoration project."

Make gave Raleigh a small bow. "Honored to meet you." She said in perfect English, but with a slight Japanese accent. She turned to Pentecost. "_I imagined him differently._" she told him in Japanese.

"_Different how?_" Raleigh asked in Japanese. Mako snapped her head towards him with widened eyes and a blush of embarrassment. For a second, she was like a deer caught in the headlights. Raleigh couldn't help but smile. Japan was easily one of the biggest financial contributors to the PPDC. As such, a lot of PPDC support staff were Japanese, at least on this side of the Pacific Ocean, so many Rangers were unofficially required to learn at least enough of the Japanese language to be able to effectively communicate in the field.

She found a response after a second or two of shock. "My apologies, Mr. Becket. I've heard much about you."

"Come on. Let's head inside." Pentecost said as he lead Raleigh and Mako into the Shatterdome. "Not only are we getting soaked out here, but we also have a tight timetable and a lot to do."

They walked into the warehouse structure in front of the helipad, passing through a labyrinth of crate stacks, most filled with rations, but no small amount also had spare Jaeger parts in order to keep the Jaegers docked in the Shatterdome in peak fighting condition. They walked up to one of many cargo elevators, Pentecost pressing a button to summon it. After a minute of waiting, the doors groaned open, allowing the trio entry into the spacious elevator.

"Hold the door! Hold the door!"

Raleigh instinctively held the door open, and two men came in with a crate that smelled of fresh produce. "Good timing, Doctors. Ms. Mori and I are giving the new Ranger the grand tour. These are our chief k-scientists for the mission. Our chief biologist Dr. Newton Geiszler and our chief physicist Dr. Hermann Gottlieb."

"Call me Newt." Newt said. "Only my mother calls me Doctor." he then joked, chuckling. The smile of the young, spectacled, crazy-haired man faded as the silence suddenly turned awkward as no one laughed at what he apparently thought was a decent joke. The other doctor, an older gentlemen with a cereal bowl haircut and a mouth seemingly locked in an eternal frown, simply rolled his eyes. Newt then went back to the crate, opening it revealing enough lettuce to feed a large family.

As Newt inspected the crate's contents, his sleeve slipped, revealing a sleeve of Kaiju tattoos. "Nice ink." Raleigh commented. He pointed to the face of a vicious looking reptile of some kind. "Who is that, Ghilaron?"

"Good eye." Newt replied with a smile, apparently pleased that his tattoos were noticed. "Though you'd have to be a moron not to recognize him." he added with a roll of his eyes.

"Well, my brother and I _did _kill it in 2017." Raleigh replied with a smirk. "Cut its head off, if I remember right."

"…Woah." Newt replied. He snapped his fingers. "Holy crap, you're Raleigh Becket! Pilot of Gipsy Danger!"

"Former pilot." Raleigh confessed with a shrug.

"Well, I guess you of all people would know Ghilaron." Newt said. "He was one of the biggest cat-III's ever. Three thousand tons of awesome!"

Raleigh's smirk disappeared as he raised an eyebrow. "Awesome?" he asked. It wasn't quite the right word to describe a Kaiju in Raleigh's mind.

"I mean awful." Newt quickly amended. "Or awesome in the old sense of the word. Awe-inspiring."

"He's a Kaiju Groupie." Gottlieb told Raleigh. "He loves them."

"I don't _love _them." Newt defended. "I've just studied the things, like, my whole life. Unlike most people, I want to see one alive and up close one day."

Raleigh shook his head. "Trust me, you don't wanna."

"Well, they _are _the most immense, complex living entities ever to walk the earth." he argued. "Way I see it, if you want to stop the Kaiju, you have to _understand _them."

"Or you just blow 'em to chunks." Raleigh said with a shrug. "I've found that that works too."

It was then that the elevator door opened. "This is our stop, gentlemen." Pentecost said as he stepped off, Mako close behind him. "This way, Mr. Becket. Doctors Geiszler and Gottlieb will meet back up with us later." With that, Raleigh followed Pentecost and Mako out, leaving the two scientists in the elevator behind them. "I know they're eccentric Mr. Becket, but don't let that fool you. Unorthodox as they are, they're among the finest minds we have."

They continued walking down the corridor and arrived at a large door. Mako punched the access code into the keypad next to the door, and the sliding double doors opened. The three of them walked in. "Welcome to the Shatterdome, Mr. Becket."

Raleigh couldn't help but look all around him. The Shatterdome itself, where the Jaeger launch bays were kept, was just absolutely massive. He looked up at the ceiling of the cavernous dome, some five hundred feet above him. He could see the LOCCENT on the far side of the dome. Crewmen and technicians were scurrying to and fro, doing everything to make sure that each Jaeger housed here was in peak fighting condition. Speaking of Jaegers, by far the most notable aspects of the Shatterdome were its three largest residents. Pentecost started talking again.

"In 2019, G-Force was a three-Jaeger strike team. This time, it'll be a four-Jaeger team, including the one we're giving you. The Jaegers and their Rangers were all approached for this mission based on their skill, armaments, and track record. They are also currently undergoing modifications specifically for this mission, more on that in the official briefing." Pentecost explained.

The first Jaeger they passed by was a big red one, and very strange looking. For one, it had digitigrade legs, something you didn't see in many Jaegers. Its head was just a single eye, reminding Raleigh of a flashlight. However, the Jaeger's oddest and most noticeable feature by far was the fact that it had three arms. It had a large, beefy-looking left arm with a huge shoulder pad that bore the Jaeger's logo, a yellow monster that appeared to be sticking its tongue out. Its other two arms, located where its right arm would be, were much smaller by comparison.

"Crimson Typhoon, out of China." Pentecost said as he pointed to the Jaeger. "Piloted by the Wei clan." he pointed to three identical young Chinese men with shaved heads playing basketball at Crimson's feet. The men were passing the ball between each other in an intricate, complex-looking pattern. Occasionally, they would shoot the ball through the hoop, but that didn't seem to be the point of their exercise. Looked more to Raleigh like it was meant to gauge how syncronized their actions were.

"Triplets." Pentecost pointed out. "Only ones we've ever been able to get to drift together. They use the Thundercloud formation. Very powerful. In addition, Crimson Typhoon's chassis is made out of an acid-resistant alloy, a last-minute addition prior to its launch in 2018 against her first Kaiju opponent, Hedorah. That fight lasted nearly six hours; one for the record books."

They walked past Crimson Typhoon to the next Jaeger. It was a tank of a Jaeger, steel-grey in color and with a head resembling a power-plant tower, with what appeared to be twin jet turbines mounted on its shoulders. On the left side of the tower-head was a small red star with white wings, the Jaeger's logo. Its firsts were also extremely bulky, perfect for shattering a Kaiju's skull with fists alone. If one were to squint at the chest cavity, one could see the Jaeger's _true _conn pod. This Jaeger stored its conn pod in the chest rather than the head, for the same reason the 'head' is so heavily armored and an obvious target; to draw attention away from the Rangers in the real conn pod.

"That tank is Cherno Alpha, down from Vladivostok." Pentecost said. "Last Mark-I Jaeger still in active service. Piloted by Aleksis and Sasha Kaidonovsky, husband and wife team." he pointed to a man and a woman sitting near Cherno's feet. The man, Aleksis, was a giant of a man at seven feet tall. He also had bleach blonde hair and a thick black beard marred by what looked to be a permanent scowl. Next to him, Sasha seemed very small by comparison. She too had bleach blonde hair and wore bright red lipstick that seemed permanently curved into a slight, cocky smirk. Both were sitting in chairs, holding hands as they were hooked up to what Raleigh recognized as a neural relay, a kind of miniature drift rig used by rookie Rangers to practice for a real Jaeger, or by veterans looking to keep their drift sharp.

"They hold the record for longest sustained neural handshake, over eighteen hours." Pentecost pointed out. He pointed up to Cherno Alpha. "See that patch of metal welded onto Cherno's head? That's where Megaguirus plunged her stinger into Cherno to try to leech off the Jaeger's energy reserves. That plan backfired on the bug though, as it put her within close enough reach to get a good hold on her and deliver a headshock."

Leading the technicians at the neural relay was a Japanese woman with short black hair who looked to be around Mako's edge. She looked over her shoulder, noticed the Marshall, and bowed. "That's Miki Saegusa." Pentecost said to Raleigh as he bowed back without breaking his pace. "She was a teacher at the Tokyo ESP Research Institute. We didn't really take her seriously at first. I even personally thought the whole thing was a big scam. That is, up until she was able to dissuade Baragon from attacking Osaka a few years back with nothing but her mind. After that, we asked her to join the PPDC and she agreed. She's now our chief drift expert. Being a psychic, she knows the Drift like the back of her hand. She'll help you find your new co-pilot."

Raleigh resisted the urge to wince. That's right. He'd need a co-pilot to get into a Jaeger again, wouldn't he? Somehow, he'd completely forgotten that he'd have to replace Yancy. He wasn't sure if he was up to that. They continued down the alley and arrived at the third Jaeger. This one had a sleek design and was sky blue in color. Smooth curves on the chest and fins visible from the shoulders gave the Jaeger the look of a jet. Printed on the right side of the Jaeger's chest was the image of a bulldog gnawing on a missile.

"Last, but certainly not least, Striker Eureka." Pentecost said. "The only surviving Australian Jaeger. First and last of the Mark Vs. Fastest Jaeger on Earth. Just relocated from Sydney yesterday. Good timing. They're piloted by father and son team Hercules and Chuck Hansen. You already know Herc. He's been a Ranger since the very beginning. He's even a returning member of the old G-Force. He went up against the First Kaiju in Lucky Seven. As he's the most experienced and skilled Ranger on the team, he'll be the leader of the new G-Force."

Raleigh saw Herc and Chuck Hansen sitting at the edge of Striker's maintenance bay, supervising the technicians as they worked. Herc was an old man in his forties with short scraggly hair and a reddish-brown beard. Chuck also had scraggly hair of the same color but lacked his father's beard. Chuck was tossing around a tennis ball that was continually retrieved, over and over again, by a happy little english bulldog. However, once the dog saw the three of them walk by, it abandoned its quest for the ball and ran straight up to Mako. She knelt down to give the dog kisses and pettings as it licked her face.

"Hey Max!" Herc called as he walked over, immediately getting the attention of the bulldog. Max the bulldog ran back to his master. "Don't drool over Ms. Mori, you." He looked up at Mako and shrugged. "He sees a pretty girl, gets all worked up."

Pentecost gestured from Herc to Raleigh. "Herc, this is your newest Ranger. Raleigh Becket. Piloted Gipsy Danger. Four kills, one capture."

Herc smiled at Raleigh and offered his hand. "I know you. We rode together once before, yeah?"

"We did sir." Raleigh replied as he took Herc's hand, shaking it. "My brother and I. Six years ago in a three-Jaeger drop."

"That's right." Herc replied with a nod as he began reminiscing. "Manila. Three of us against the Rodans. That was before my son joined up. Tough fight."

"Aren't they all?" Raleigh asked. "Heard about you on the radio today. Another tough fight."

Chuck whistled at Max, who came running over. "I heard about your brother." Herc said as he put a hand on Raleigh's shoulder. "I'm sorry. It's brave of you to be here after that, son."

Raleigh nodded, feeling awkward and embarrassed at not knowing what to say in response to that. "So, leader of G-Force huh?"

"Yeah. Made sense to the Marshall." Herc said. "I've fought the Jaeger von Jaegers before. I know how the lizard fights, so I feel like I can guide everyone else through it."

"Ms. Mori will show you to _your_ Jaeger now, Mr. Becket." Pentecost spoke at last. "All G-Force Rangers are to reconvene in the briefing room in fifteen. Herc, if you would come with me. There are a few things we need to set up for the meeting." With that, Pentecost took Herc back the way they came.

"Please follow me, Mr. Becket." Mako said before she starting leading Raleigh out of the Jaeger maintenance bays and down another corridor. As they walked at a brisk pace, Raleigh looked Mako up and down. Like many Japanese women, she had a somewhat petite figure, about a half-head shorter than he. And also like many Japanese women, she carried herself with a dignified, professional manner. However, Raleigh couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to her than meets the eye. For one, he didn't really know what her exact role within this mission was. Pentecost said she was in charge of the restoration project, so she must have been a pretty good engineer. In addition, she must be Pentecosts's direct subordinate from the way she directly reports to him. Personal assistant maybe? She certainly wasn't here when he was in the PPDC, so she must be fairly new.

"So, the mission." Raleigh said to break the ice. "Taking on the King of the Monsters. Pretty crazy, right?"

"It's been a long time coming." Mako replied. "Gojira is a murderer who has evaded justice for too long. The world will never be truly free of Kaiju until he is dead."

Raleigh was taken aback by her comment. He just learned something else about Mako; she was brave. Had to be to have said the First Kaiju's name out loud like that. The rest of their walk was carried out in silence until they arrived at another sliding double-door, this one leading to a repair bay. Mako punched in the access code on the keypad and the doors slid open. The two of them stepped in and saw the repair bay, a towering network of cat-walks littered with parts, wires, and even the odd relay engine being tested for performance. It was all arranged around the fourth Jaeger of G-Force.

Gipsy Danger.

Raleigh stood still and silent, not really believing what he was seeing. The last time he saw Gipsy Danger, Yancy was still alive and their Jaeger was filled with bleeding holes and was missing an arm. Now here she stood, exactly as he remembered her, as if none of that ever happened.

"…..How…." he whispered.

"As far as wrecked Jaegers went, Gipsy Danger was actually very lucky." Mako explained. "I found that she was in the most salvageable condition. She needed a new conn pod and a new arm, as well as no small amount of new parts and renovation of her armor. But, we were able to bring her back."

"She looks like new." Raleigh said.

"Better than new." Mako replied. "She's one of a kind now."

"We outfitted her with a new kind of metal alloy the Japanese government's science department cooked up." said another voice. Raleigh turned around and saw a familiar face wearing a bow tie and suspenders. He smiled at him. "Blast resistant _and _radiation resistant. Should help her last in a fight with You-Know-Who. Additionally, she's got forty engine blocks per muscle strand, hyper-torque drivers in every limb, and a brand spanking new fluid synapse system." he pointed to Mako. "And this little lady oversaw it all."

"Tendo! My man!" Raleigh bellowed as he walked over and took Tendo Choi in a big hug that Tendo returned. When they broke off the hug, he pulled a small tin out of his pocket and handed a pill to Raleigh.

"Metharocin." he said. "New precaution. It'll shield you from radiation while out of your suit. Between Gipsy's exposed core still being fuel rod and You-Know-Who's favorite form of attack, you'll need it."

Raleigh nodded and swallowed the pill. "So what's been going on with you?" the Ranger asked.

"Well, remember Allison from munitions?" Tendo asked. He held up his hand, proudly showing off his wedding ring. "Got hitched and had a kid last year."

"Congratulations." Raleigh said.

Tendo nodded. He paused. "The Drift's going to stir it all up, man. Memories. You sure you're ready for this?"

Raleigh paused himself, then looked up at Gipsy Danger. He remembered all the moves. He could pilot a Jaeger and fight a Kaiju, no problem. But letting another person into his mind where Yancy had once been? He wasn't as sure about that. He turned back to Tendo. "I'd better be." Raleigh replied at last. "Considering who we're going up against, you'll need all the Jaegers you can get."

Tendo nodded. "Well, I've got things to do. I'll let Ms. Mori show you around the old girl." With that, he walked away. Raleigh turned back towards Gipsy Danger. The technicians were still hard at work on her, flurries of sparks flying out here and there as they welded on the armor that would, allegedly, help Gipsy last in a fight with the King of the Monsters.

"Actually Mr. Becket, the tour of Gipsy Danger will have to wait." Mako said. "You must attend a G-Force briefing in ten minutes."

Raleigh nodded at Mako. "Lead on then."

….

The briefing room was about the size of a small high school gymnasium, even down to the rows of cheap plastic fold-up chairs in front of a rolled down screen sheet in front of a projector hooked up to an advanced computer system mounted on a trolly. The cheapness of the briefing room was a reminder of how the Jaeger Program didn't have as much financial weight to throw around these days. Being a few minutes early, Raleigh was the first one in the room. Eventually the Wei triplets, Kaidonovskies, and Hansens joined him. Each Ranger team sat off in a different part of the seat collection.

Eventually, Marshall Stacker Pentecost entered the room, followed closely by Doctors Geiszler and Gottlieb. The two scientists stood at the computer while Pentecost stood in front of the screen sheet. "Ladies and Gentlemen." he began. "Rangers. Let me first start off by thanking each and every one of you for volunteering for this mission. The fact that you all stepped forward is, by itself, a great testament to your courage. Now then, let's begin."

He walked off to the side opposite of the two scientists and nodded at them. Dr. Gottlieb stood at the computer and typed in some commands. He whispered something to Newt, Newt whispered something back, a brief whisper argument ensued, and Newt rolled his eyes and groaned as he walked over to the light switch to kill the room's lights. Gottlieb turned on the projector, showing what was playing on the computer's screen.

"This is footage taken from a stealth drone flying over Shoten Island, a fairly large but uninhabited island located in the South Pacific Ocean, at 0100 hours local time approximately one month ago. Thermal scans found something sleeping in the jungle." Pentecost explained.

For a few moments, all the Rangers could see was the blue with black outlines of leaves and trees, the numbers arranged vertically on the sides of the screen staying fairly low, showing little activity. Then, a mass of bright reddish-yellow with a pure white heart entered the view as the camera panned over the island, the numbers on the side of the screen suddenly going nuts. The mass slowly and steadily moved up and down, showing that it was breathing. By far the most notable feature was the row of orange-yellow spiky plates running along the creature's back.

"After this initial discovery, we had several more stealth drones fly over the island to confirm the Kaiju's identity." Pentecost paused. "There's no doubt. It's him. Godzilla."

Raleigh sat in the back, so he was able to gauge the other Rangers' reactions without being obvious about it simply by glancing around. The Kaidonovskies stiffened at the utterance of the First Kaiju's name, Aleksis setting his jaw. The Wei triplets tried remaining stoic in the face of the Jaeger Von Jaegers, but one of them couldn't help but shift uncomfortably in his seat. That one was a little nervous. He saw Herc take a deep breath. He knew that this fight was going to be tough and most likely unpleasant. Chuck had the complete opposite reaction though. Raleigh could only see the side of Chuck's face from where he sat, but he could make out a wide grin. Chuck relished the ultimate challenge, of becoming the Ranger who killed the King of the Monsters. He was hungry for glory, which wasn't the point of the mission. Hopefully Herc can keep a tight leash on his son.

"We've been running nightly stealth drone fly-bys of the island ever since and, as of last night, Godzilla's still on the island. We've spent the last month activating everything we could get our hands on, including all of you, in preparation for a mission to end the King's reign of terror once and for all." Pentecost said. "We've been modifying your Jaegers for this fight. Dr. Gottlieb, show them video-file alpha-mike."

Dr. Gottlieb nodded and punched a few commands into the computer. A new video appeared, this one depicting a plate of metal in the middle of some kind of desert. "This is a new experimental metal alloy created by the AMF, the Anti-Kaiju branch of the JSDF." Dr. Gottlieb began. "Now, I don't want to boast-"

"Yes you do." Newt muttered.

"…I don't want to _boast_." Gottlieb tried again, giving Newt a good glare this time. "But I should mention that the AMF enlisted _my _expertise for what they called Project STONEWALL. I was mostly responsible for calculating the atomic numbers of the elements involved in order to come up with the right mixture of metals-"

"The point, Dr. Gottlieb." Pentecost prodded.

"Yes. Well. Actions speak louder than words I suppose, so let's just play the test footage and allow the fruits of _my _calculations to speak for themselves." he glanced a smug look at Newt, who only glared in response. "Here, it is being tested in the Arizona desert of the United States to see if it can resist the blast of a dirty bomb that is powerful enough to, if placed in New York City, turn Times Square into a smoldering crater."

A sheet of dark-grey metal the size of a mattress was propped up facing the bomb in question. The camera then zoomed out, revealing it was several dozen feet in the air, likely attached to a helicopter. The view continued to zoom out as the helicopter flew further away. Eventually, the bomb detonated in a huge blast that created a small mushroom cloud. The video then cut to several hazmat workers picking through the debris of the explosion, a few with geiger counters crackling with high levels of radioactivity. Two of them found the sheet of metal and propped it up to reveal that, besides some scorch-marks, it was no worse for wear. Not even a little bit melted. One hazmat worker knocked on the sheet, then gave the camera a thumbs up.

"Being one of the most blast-resistant metals ever devised, as well as being able to reflect most radioactivity, it is an ideal defense against Godzilla's most feared weapon, his atomic ray." Dr. Gottlieb said. Newt didn't say anything, but simply crossed his arms and drummed his fingers against one arm, staring at the ceiling as if bored or waiting for something.

"Cherno Alpha has already been outfitted with the new amor plating made from this metal. Both Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka are still undergoing retrofits as we speak." he paused. "Unfortunately, our current budget only makes it so that three out of G-Force's four Jaegers can be outfitted with this new armor. Crimson Typhoon was ruled out as needing the armor least as, if all goes well, Crimson Typhoon will merely provide covering fire and hit-and-run strikes while the other three Jaegers engage Godzilla more directly."

"So, we just stick to running and jumping and shooting?" one of the Weis asked. Gottlieb nodded. "Cool."

"Have fun getting punched by the big mean lizard, guys!" one of the other Weis said as he waved to the other Rangers. The other two chuckled. Aleksis silenced their chortling with a glare that could bend iron. Sasha placed a hand on Aleksis's shoulder, which immediately seemed to calm him down. Raleigh wondered if Sasha may have just saved the triplets' lives.

"Are we sure this new armor will work?" Sasha asked.

"Absolutely." Dr. Gottlieb said with full certainty. He turned his attention to the rest of G-Force. "If it weren't for my numbers, this armor wouldn't exist. If nothing else, dear Rangers, have faith in the numbers. Numbers don't lie, my friends. Politics, poetry, promises, those are lies. Numbers are as close as we get to the handwriting of God."

Newt snorted as he less than successfully tried to suppress a burst of laughter. Gottlieb shot him a dirty look.

"In addition to improving the Jaegers to better fight Godzilla, the task of studying our foe in depth fell to Dr. Geiszler." Pentecost said. He nodded to Newt.

"Sweet. My turn!" Newt said as he pulled the trolly away from Gottlieb, earning another dirty look from the physicist. Newt hammered on the keys, bringing up another video on the screen. This one was footage of the last G-Force engaging Godzilla on some kind of island.

Raleigh took a breath. There he was. Godzilla. King of the Monsters. A mountain of a creature with jagged scales as black as coal, a wide barrel chest, muscular arms and even more muscular legs, a thick tail and three rows of pale grey spiky dorsal plates running down his back. His orange eyes always burning with fury. His roar like tearing metal and so loud it can break glass. It's been said that when Rangers want to scare each other, they tell Godzilla stories. Given how he's beaten eight Jaegers, five of which were completely totaled, the reputation was well-deserved.

And Raleigh signed up to fight him. Maybe becoming a Ranger again wasn't the best idea.

"Okay, so the _last _G-Force made up of Romeo Blue, Lucky Seven and Tacit Ronin. These three Jaegers were chosen for the job as, when they worked together, they had a pretty good 'fighter, mage, thief' thing going on." Newt began. He paused as he noticed the blank stares from the Rangers. "Fight, mage, thief?" he tried, as if unbelieving that the Rangers would have the gall to not know what that is. "The three basic role-playing character types? One is a brawny physical powerhouse, one has an emphasis on long-range attacks, the third is the lightly armored fast guy, come on don't you people read TVtropes?"

Pentecost cleared his throat and stared at Newt. Newt quickly composed himself. "What I'm saying is that the differing fighting styles and armaments of each of the three Jaegers complimented one another well. Tacit Ronin was lightly armored but very agile, Romeo Blue was slow but a hard hitter, and Lucky Seven had a wide array of missiles and rail guns and plasma casters, making him the best long-range fighter. With their talents combined, they would've formed a pretty good team."

Newt paused. "In theory." he said. He tapped a few commands into the keyboard. The video cut to Tacit Ronin running up to Godzilla while the Kaiju grappled with Romeo Blue on the edge of a steep cliff. Tacit's fang blades were out, and ready to slice at Godzilla from the slide. The Japanese Jaeger leapt into the air…only to get swatted aside by Godzilla's tail. The Jaeger tumbled down the cliff into the ocean. Godzilla was then able to get the upper hand on Romeo Blue, tearing off the American Jaeger's frontal dorsal fin, impaling it into Romeo's chest, and pushing her off the cliff, sending her tumbling into the ocean after Tacit. Lucky Seven fired everything it had on the Kaiju, but Godzilla weathered the assault with ease. He growled as he picked up a boulder and threw it at Lucky, hitting the Australian Jaeger in the shoulder and throwing off its aim.

Raleigh saw Herc unconsciously rub his shoulder at that part.

Godzilla charged at Lucky straight on and slashed at her armor with his claws. With no real melee weapons to speak of, Lucky Seven resorted to fists to fight back, swinging madly like a dirty boxer. Lucky was able to land a few good punches, particular in the gut and the mouth. The gut shots sent Godzilla reeling a bit, back towards the cliff where he tossed off Tacit and Romeo. Lucky delivered a hell of a hook to the Kaiju's jaw, and Raleigh thought he saw a tooth fly out of the monster's maw. It looked like Lucky was almost winning.

Then, suddenly, Lucky Seven just stopped. Right in the middle of throwing a punch, the Jaeger seemed to freeze in place. Quick on the uptake, Godzilla threw a punch of his own, knocking Lucky to the ground. He then reached down and grabbed Lucky Seven's leg. He then swung the Jaeger around and around and finally tossed her off the side of the cliff to join Tacit Ronin and Romeo blue. Godzilla looked down at the ocean and roared in triumph as six escape pods floated up to the surface. The video ended there, and Raleigh couldn't help but notice how Herc seemed to slump in his seat ever so slightly.

"In summary, Godzilla won the day by throwing Tacit Ronin and Romeo Blue into the drink." Newt resumed. "That left Lucky Seven to fight Godzilla on its own, a task made complicated by its lack of melee weapons. It was doing surprisingly well near the end, up until that software glitch that wound up breaking the Drift of its pilots."

Newt didn't mention the elephant in the room. Scott Hansen, Herc's younger brother, was originally Herc's co-pilot before Chuck enlisted. Scott was a member of the original G-Force, co-pilot of Lucky Seven….and was permanently dismissed from the PPDC not long after the botched attempt on Godzilla's life. Most doubted that a glitch was actually to blame.

"So from this battle we can determine a couple of things." Newt said. "Firstly, the whole 'fighter, mage, thief' dynamic doesn't really work as it makes the team vulnerable to 'crippling overspecialization.'" He paused as he noticed more blank looks from the Rangers. "That's a TV trope too." he quickly elaborated. "Basically, the Jaegers worked great as team, but not so much on their own. Once Godzilla had thrown Tacit Ronin and Romeo Blue into the ocean, Lucky Seven was at a severe disadvantage. That's why the new G-Force is made up of Jaegers who would not only work well together, but each is also good enough on its own that it can stand toe-to-toe with Godzilla in the event Godzilla forcefully splits up the team like he did with the old G-Force."

"The other thing that's noticeable here is Godzilla's intelligence." Newt went on.

That statement earned a few odd looks from the Rangers. "And now he gets crazy…" Gottlieb muttered to himself.

"What, you mean I'm the only one who noticed?" Newt asked, incredulous. "Okay. Rewind." With a few key commands, the video rewound to near the beginning of the fight. Godzilla and Romeo Blue were squaring off, Godzilla backing away from the Jaeger and closer to the cliff edge. Newt paused the video. "_That _cliff is the reason Godzilla was able to win that battle so decisively. And we just saw him _leading _Romeo Blue and the rest of G-Force to it. He was _planning _on using that cliff to his advantage."

He fast-fowarded to the end of the video, where Lucky Seven was beating Godzilla back to the cliff. "And is anyone more than a little suspicious that Godzilla just _happened _to be backing towards the cliff while Lucky Seven was beating on him? And if THAT doesn't convince you…"

He typed in a few more commands and rewound the video to the part where Godzilla ripped off Romeo Blue's front dorsal plate and ran it through her chest. He paused. "There!" he yelped. "You see that right?! He _ripped _off a bit of Jaeger and _used _it as a _weapon_! And as if THAT wasn't enough…."

He then fast-fowarded to the part where Godzilla picked up a boulder and threw it at Lucky Seven. Newt paused the video right where the boulder left Godzilla's claws. He walked up to the sheet and pointed at the boulder. "He _threw a rock!" _Newt emphatically said, as this was the most amazing scientific discovery of the century.

Chuck shrugged. "The lizard can throw a rock. What's the big deal?"

"Um, hello? When was the last time you heard of, say, a komodo dragon throwing a rock?" Newt asked. "Or a crocodile using a crude stone for stabbing? Or a lion, a tiger or a bear? Answer; _never_. Because using a stabbing weapon and throwing a rock is considered a crude form of _tool use _by anthropologists, and _TOOL USE_ is considered an abstract psychological concept that can only be grasped by very advanced minds, particularly primates, including us homo sapiens. It's one of the things that separates the mammals from the reptiles. Reptiles just don't have the brain space for abstract concepts like tool use or planning."

He pointed a finger at Godzilla. "Except _this _reptile right here! Godzilla is, beyond the shadow of any doubt, the most intelligent reptile the world has ever seen! He can use tools, he can plan, he may even be _self-aware _to a degree."

"So he's smart." Chuck said with another. "Once again; what's the big deal?"

"I think what Dr. Geiszler is _trying _to say…." Pentecost butted in. "Is that this is not some dumb animal we're dealing with here. Godzilla is a creature that is as cunning as he is powerful. He can think and plan in a fight just as well as anyone in this room can. Do _not _underestimate him. That goes for his mind as well as his abilities. Now Dr. Geiszler, would you please go over what the microbiological department cooked up?"

"Huh? Oh!" Newt said as he rushed back to the computer and set his fingers flying. A new video appeared on this screen, this time of what looked like an amoeba.

"While your Jaegers' new armor should serve you well in the fight ahead, _this _will be our _real _ace in the hole." Pentecost said. "The Anti Nuclear Energy Bacteria, or ANEB for short. Originally developed by K-Science to clean up after a particularly radioactive Kaiju attacked an area, we've repurposed and weaponized the ANEB into a biological agent to be used against Godzilla. As you all know, the primary reason Godzilla is so damn hard to kill is because of his regeneration which allows him to recover from virtually any wound. However, like his other powers, his immune system is reliant on the nuclear energy generated within his own body. What ANEB does upon entering Godzilla's body is that it eats away at his nuclear energy, which should weaken both his regeneration and his atomic ray."

"Just throwing this out there, _I'm _the one who bred the bacteria into the ANEBs you see before you." Geiszler claimed.

"Oh sure, only after _I _calculated all the measurements and atomic numbers, without which your little amoebas wouldn't know uranium from sodium." Gottlieb seethed.

"You're _both _to thank for this new weapon, doctors." Pentecost firmly said in the hopes of preventing an argument. Raleigh guessed that this wasn't the first time the two scientists were at each other's throats. The Marshall turned back to the rest of the Rangers. "The ANEB is an airborne contagion. All it needs to do its job is to be breathed in by Godzilla. Prior to engagement, a Super-X3 squadron will bombard Godzilla with gas canister projectiles containing the ANEB. Once they do that, you'll all be clear to engage and hit that lizard with everything you've got."

Marshall Pentecost paused. "I know that some of you are nervous. I don't blame you. This _is _the First Kaiju we're talking about here. However, we have the right plan, we have the right equipment, and we have the right Rangers for the job. I know we'll get this done. Dismissed."

…..

Raleigh followed Mako Mori into the Rangers' residential quarters. Turns out, she was waiting for him just outside the briefing room and wasted no time in showing him to his room. The other Rangers were going to go down to the cafeteria for a quick bite to eat, but Raleigh was more interested in sleep right now. He'd been suffering from insomnia ever since he lost his brother, but maybe being back in the Shatterdome as a Ranger again would improve his sleep somehow.

His room wasn't much; just an eight-by-eight square room with no carpet and a bed that was barely comfortable. It _did _have its own bathroom though, so that alone made it vastly more luxurious to most lodgings in military bases. Raleigh dropped his duffel bag on the bed and took it all in while Mako just stood in the doorway, holding her pink clipboard close to her chest. "If you need anything, I'm right across the hall." Mako said as she gestured to the door across the hall. "You'll meet the candidates at six hundred hours tomorrow. I've tried my best to match them to your drift patterns."

"You did?" Raleigh asked as he turned to Mako. "Personally?"

"I did, Mr. Becket." Mako replied with a nod.

"Huh." Raleigh said as he went over to unzip his duffel bag. "Thought that psychic would do that, what's-her-face."

"Miki Saegusa." Mako said. "I didn't need her help, as I can easily predict Drift-compatible candidates simply by studying past Drift readings, no psychic powers necessary. However, Ms. Saegusa will help us narrow down the candidates tomorrow. I'm told that she can sense such things."

"Good to hear." Raleigh said. "So what's your story? Pentecost says you were in charge of restoring Gipsy Danger. You an engineer?"

Mako said nothing. Raleigh turned to her, noting the way she simply stared at him with analytical eyes. It kinda gave him goosebumps. "Pilot?" he tried. Mako actually stiffened at that suggestion. Raleigh had the feeling that he struck a nerve.

"No. Not yet." she answered. "But I want to be one."

"What's your simulator score?" Raleigh asked.

"Fifty-one drops, fifty-one kills." Mako answered.

"…And you're _not _one of the candidates tomorrow?" he probed.

"…I am not." Mako admitted. "But the Marshall has his reasons." she was quick to add.

Mako's professional composure was starting to crack. Raleigh could sense it. "Fifty-one simulated kills though….those must be some damn good reasons."

"I hope you approve of my choices." Mako said in an effort to change topics. "I've studied your fighting technique and strategy. Every one of your battles. Even Anchorage."

"Really?" Raleigh asked. "What do you think?"

"…Mr. Becket, it's not my place to comment." Mako said, dodging the question.

"Marshall's not here, Ms. Mori. You can comment. And you can stop clutching that clipboard so hard. Looks like you're gonna snap it in half." Raleigh said.

Mako looked down at her chest and saw that, indeed, she was holding the clipboard a bit too hard. She shot a glare at Raleigh. "I think you're unpredictable." she bluntly told him. "You have a habit of deviating from standard combat techniques, you take risks that endanger yourself and your crew and, quite frankly, I don't think you are the right man for this mission."

Raleigh was taken aback for a second by how blunt Mako's statement was. Even Mako was a bit taken aback it seems, as the first thing she did after that little rant was look away, no doubt kicking herself for breaking her composure.

"…Well, maybe you're right about that, Ms. Mori." Raleigh admitted after he took a second to put his thoughts together. "But in real combat, outside the simulator, in the real world with the Miracle Mile at your back and millions of people just beyond it praying for you to save them….in real combat you make decisions and you live with the consequences."

With that, and feeling like he needed to emphasize his point with some dramatic flare, he took off his shirt, revealing the scars in his torso that were created the night Yancy died, when the circuitry of his drivesuit's inner layer overloaded and branded him. He didn't just do it prove a point. His shirt was also getting kinda sweaty and he felt compelled to change into a new one.

Mako's reaction was to, oddly enough, just stare at him. As soon as Raleigh caught her doing this, they made eye contact for a second. She then turned on her heels and marched over to her door across the hall, slamming it shut.

"…..Huh." Raleigh said. "Weird."

As he dug through the duffel bag for a new shirt, he never felt Mako's eye on him through her door's peep-hole.

….

**And that's all the story I've got for now, folks! Hopefully this will be the start of something good.**


End file.
